Disband the canon. Appraise the things you were told have significance. Read for yourself.
Poetry does not begin with the Canterbury Tales, not with the Odyssey, not even with Genesis. It begins, says Robert Graves in The White Goddess, with the Song of Amergin, an ancient Celtic calendar-alphabet.
I am the womb: of every holt,
I am the blaze: on every hill,
I am the queen: of every hive,
I am the shield: for every head,
I am the tomb: of every hope.
(Stanza III)
What are you, writer?
Hard
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Hard like steel?
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((((*L*))))Have a nice weekend. so many thanks !!
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Have a great week my friend.
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The sun of hope rose after dark.
And smiled the same day, on the other side of the world.
thanks a lot, !!! you also from whole heart. start nice weeks and great start !!!!(se/nz((((*L*)))
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The variation of the poem you posted is very beautiful, but bares scant resemblance to the original. It was so divergent, in fact, that Hilda Ellis Davidson (a scholar of poetry) remarked that Graves had “misled many innocent readers with his eloquent but deceptive statements about a nebulous goddess in early Celtic literature.”
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Translations, especially in poetry, rarely map linguistically to original works. To do so neglects the poetry in the poem. Do you think, in his essay, Graves was looking to uncover things about poetry’s magic rather than the historical interpretation of myth?
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Yes. Graves thought poetic inspiration was a valid historical method. As veracity is concerned, it is not. The extremity of his changes to the poem (ie. new lines added in; old ones moved around; certain consonants of the Ogham alphabet dropped) are such that it shouldn’t be presented as a historical reconstruction, but rather as a work inspired by the original song of Amergin. And yet Graves provides neither the original, nor any other translation (leading many naturally to believe his work is the original).
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I like this a lot. Am pondering your question and will let you know! Thank you for the starter. Nick.
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I look forward to hearing your further thoughts 🙂
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Gratitude is one of the many keys to happiness and I have to thank you !!!! nice sunday still !!!((((((((((((((((((((*L*))))))))))))))))))))))
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💐
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💐💐💐
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[…] you to Monica Carroll for the prompt! […]
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I got there in the end…! I found it very challenging, actually; if I had to narrow it down to just one, I think I’d pick the first line. Thank you for the inspiration. Nick.
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Yes. The first line is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with me.
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“Disband the canon.” That’s great! One of the things that baffled me when studying English Lit was the arbitrariness of the literary canon. I was able to open up my library to so many new writers after realizing that I had been limiting myself to books that some anonymous source once said was great. My intellectual life is definitely richer for that lesson.
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I am the fearful explorer of my self.
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Fearful! Yes indeed.
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